Jose Rodriguez Allow Syrian Refugees in America East High School

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1 KCPS High School Outstanding Author Argument Writing SY15-16 This celebration of KCPS student writing features one middle school and one high school writer in each category: narrative, informative, and argument writing. KCPS High School Outstanding Author Argument Writing Jose Rodriguez Allow Syrian Refugees in America East High School In the interview below, Jose Rodriguez shares his thoughts about writing and life. Q: Tell me about your argument piece, Allow Syrian Refugees in America Jose: Mr. Meyer assigned argument writing in our 11 th grade ELA class. I wanted to write about something that others weren t writing about. I had been learning about Syria and thought the refugee crisis would make a good argument topic. Q: Why did you want to write about this topic? Jose: I wanted to know more about the refugee situation in Syria. Where will people go who are fleeing the country? Should we allow Syrian refugees in America? I was motivated to learn more about the situation and better understand policy on refugees coming to America. Q: What are you most proud of in this piece of writing? Jose: I learned about both sides of the argument. I can see good points from both sides. I understand why we need to have restrictions on letting refugees into America, but we also have a human responsibility to help people in need. I tried to share information and evoke emotion about this topic in my writing. Q: What was most challenging about this piece of writing? Jose: Actually doing the writing. I don t think of myself as a great writer. I had a lot of thoughts in my head, but didn t get anything on paper until a couple hours before it was due. I write best under pressure. Q: What do you enjoy writing? Jose: I like to focus on topics that others won t write about politics, religion, etc. I want to know more about the issues and understand different beliefs. Q: What do you enjoy reading? Jose: It might sound cheesy, but I like Hunger Games. I also like Fahrenheit 451. I like reading about dystopian societies. Thank you for sharing your argument writing with us. Keep writing!

2 Jose Rodriguez East HS ELA 11 th Grade Mr. Meyer Argument Essay Allow Syrian Refugees in America As of November 2015, over 12 million Syrians have fled their home country, with 4 million of them being refugees. World Vision says that Since the Syrian civil war began, 320,000 people have been killed, including nearly 12,000 children. There are three main reasons why these people are fleeing: violence, collapsed government and hope for a better future, for themselves and for their children. The majority of Syrian refugees currently reside in Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt. Around 15% of the refugees have fled to Europe. Around half of the refugees are children, meaning that they have been forced out of their homes and forced to quit school. The importance of this situation is immeasurable. These are real people who have been deprived of a normal life. They re not just statistics or data that you should ignore. These are real people who need our help. We must allow Syrian refugees in America. The U.S. currently plans on accepting at least 10,000 refugees for fiscal year That number is remarkably low compared to other countries. The Guardian states that Were the country to take in an additional 10,000 Syrians, they would still only represent approximately 0.004% of its existing population. Both Turkey and Lebanon each have accepted over 1 million refugees into their countries. Jordan, Iraq and Egypt combined for about 1 million together. Both the UK and France, though the current number is low, have pledged to allow 50,000 people seek asylum into their countries. This ratio stands in marked contrast with the much poorer and much smaller countries bearing the biggest burden of the Syrian refugee crisis. Now the U.S. government isn t just going to allow any refugee enter the country without any background check or basic screening, as some might claim, but instead they are taking a very careful and precise route. In a recent article from The Guardian, they claimed that the U.S. s method of accepting refugees is much more efficient, compared to that of Europe s. Each candidate is vetted first by the UN s

3 refugee agency, and then separately by officials from the State Department, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Department. The process takes between 18 months and two years. First we will analyze why we should allow Syrian refugees in America. Primarily, it s our obligation as a world power with significant resources to help fellow humans in need. After the official end of the War in Iraq and the withdrawal of U.S. troops, the terrorist group known as ISIS rose quickly in power. After the death of Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda was in a total mess. Along with the internal war raging in Syria and the unstable government in Iraq, this provided a perfect opportunity for ISIS to seize control of the region. Due to all these factors, the U.S. indirectly created ISIS. The U.S. had a hand in the region s destruction which in turn has caused this crisis. Second, these refugees do not represent the small fraction that is ISIS. Many Americans believe that we shouldn t allow these people in because they are Muslim, saying that these people might just be ISIS fighters masquerading as refugees. They believe that ISIS maybe trying to sneak its fighters into the country this way. Though this could be a real concern, it eventually would not matter. ISIS has already made it clear that they are intent on attacking America, even going as far as claiming to have several of their fighters in our states ready to attack at a moment s notice. If this claim is in fact correct, then the debate on whether we should allow these refugees into our country doesn t matter. Why would we not help these people if in the end ISIS does manage to attack us on our soil. It s a risk that we are forced to take. Now onto why some believe bringing Syrian refugees into the country would be a bad idea for America. Most Americans believe that the U.S. has more pressing concerns than trying to help these people. An argument that has been going around is that we should focus our efforts on the homeless epidemic occurring in our country before we try to deal with the refugees. While this argument is valid, it also encourages the idea that the U.S. government can t do both. Another reason why some believe bringing the refugees into the country would be a bad idea is that we have no history of taking in a huge amount of refugees all at once, so we don t know what might happen. This argument is also false. In the 1970 s, the U.S. accepted over 500,000 South Vietnamese refugees. Since 9/11, America has taken in over 800,000 refugees from around the world. Some people argue that if we allow too many refugees in,

4 then we won t know how to track them all. They argue that if we aren t able to track them, then this might lead to terrorist attacks against America. Yet again, this is not true. If you take a look at the graph below, provided by Dylan Petrohilos & Beenish Ahmed from THINKPROGRESS, then you will see that virtually none of the refugees that have been admitted into the U.S. have committed violent crimes, meaning that there s a strong possibility that if we allow the Syrian refugees into the country nothing wrong will happen. Now I m not saying that there s a 100% chance nothing wrong will happen, but just look at the evidence. In conclusion, the debate on whether to allow Syrian refugees will continue to rage on. This issue will not be answered with a simple yes or no. You have to look at the facts and not just make a decision based on emotions. In my opinion, we should let the refugees in, regardless of what the American people think. Sometimes the majority does choose wrong. We owe it to these people, either because we indirectly caused this mess or because it s our duty as human beings. When someone is in trouble, you don t just

5 look away or tell them that it s not your problem, you do whatever you can to help them because if it was the other way around and you were in trouble, you would hope that they help you.